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Monday, February 16, 2004

Feb. 16, 2004Texas Man Faces Execution For Killing Children----Father To Die TuesdayFor Setting Fire That Killed His 3 DaughtersWhen firefighters arrived at the burning 5-bedroom house on Corsicana'ssouth side, the man who lived there was outside.Neighbors said they saw Cameron Willingham outdoors even before the blazeengulfed the place, according to testimony at Willingham's trial."He was engaged in pushing his car out of the way so it wouldn't bescorched by the flames," John Jackson, the prosecutor in the subsequentcriminal case, recalled.Inside, Willingham's 3 young children -- 2-year-old Amber, and 1-year-oldtwins, Karmon Diane and Kameron Marie -- were dying. It was 2 days beforeChristmas 1991.Willingham was charged with setting the blaze that killed the 3youngsters, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.His execution was set for Tuesday night."In my opinion, Willingham was an utterly sociopathic individual," saidJackson, the former Navarro County district attorney and now a statedistrict judge. "He had a lifestyle that really didn't include care andnurturing of children. And, in my opinion, the children were just animpediment to his lifestyle."Willingham, now 36, insisted in a recent interview on death row he wasn'tresponsible for his daughters' deaths."I was the only person at home and that was their way of thinking," hesaid of the charges against him. The resulting trial was "a joke," hesaid."Any man who can look at me in the eye and say the justice system is not afarce is a liar. All they're going to do is kill an innocent man forsomething he didn't do. The most distressing thing is the state of Texaswill kill an innocent man and doesn't care they're making a mistake."Evidence at his trial showed an accelerant, believed to be charcoallighter fluid, was used to ignite the floors, a front threshold to thehouse and on a concrete porch. A fire marshal testified the placement ofthe accelerant was designed to impede any rescue efforts by firefighters.Willingham suggested a lantern lamp dumped fluid when a shelf collapsedinside the house and caught fire or his oldest daughter, who was"fascinated with everything," accidentally set off the blaze."Either that or someone came in with the intent to kill me and thechildren," he said from prison. "The arson investigator was a liar.""He really just wanted to get rid of them," said Pat Batchelor, who wasNavarro County district attorney at the time. "He had a burn on his armfrom charcoal lighter fluid."Willingham, a native of Ardmore, Okla., said his wife went out shoppingand left him with the children. He was asleep late in the morning when the2-year-old woke him with her cry for him. He saw smoke, jumped out of bedand told her to get out of the house, he said. Willingham said he tried toget to the twins' room, couldn't get past the flames and ran to get help.His house had no phone."The only way for me to get back into the house was to jump back into theflames," he said. "I wouldn't do that."Trial testimony showed he expressed no grief over the loss of thechildren. Neighbors said he "hollered about his car" and a firefightertestified how Willingham was upset over the loss of a dart board."I died 12 years ago," Willingham said from death row. "At 11:51 a.m.,Dec. 23, 1991. That's when I died."Willingham's wife initially supported him and testified on his behalf athis 1992 trial. But Stacy Kuykendall told the Corsicana Daily Sun earlierthis month that after reviewing case and meeting with her former husbandin prison recently, she doesn't buy his version of the events that day."It was hard for me to sit in front of him," she said. "He basically tookmy life away from me. He took my kids away from me."Willingham, who would be the seventh Texas inmate to receive lethalinjection this year and the third in seven days, had a history of violenceand a record of felony and misdemeanor convictions both as an adult andjuvenile. Evidence at his trial showed he was abusive to his family andonce beat his pregnant wife with a telephone to try to force amiscarriage.In November, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case. The Texasattorney general's office was unaware of any appeals pending. A clemencyrequest was rejected Friday on a 15-0 vote by the Texas Board of Pardonsand Paroles.(source: Associated Press)